sci.energy.hydrogen

On Apr 5, 3:01=A0am, knews4u2c...@yahoo.com wrote:

> "This film exposes the hypocrisy of an academic and cultural elite who
> pretend that they value freedom of inquiry and expression but in fact
> suppress it when it clashes with their deeply held materialistic
> convictions," Dembski said. He and other proponents of ID have
> suggested that the universe shows signs of having been designed by an
> intelligent being.
>

"3. The biblical story of the perfect and finished creation from which
human beings fell into sin is pre-Darwinian mythology and post-
Darwinian nonsense."
-A Call for a New Reformation, Bishop John S. Spong
http://www.dioceseofnewark.org/jsspong/reform.html

Not all who have religion are morons. Nor has that been true in
history.

The concept that we have to be idiots with an idiotic simplistic view
of religion to be true believers like our ancestors were, since they
must have been pretty stupid because they lived long ago, is not
correct. St. Augustine and Maimonedes, for just two examples off the
top of my not particularly learned head, both argued against adopting
simplistic literal interpretation of the scriptures where they were in
conflict with scientific learning and/or logic.

"It not infrequently happens that something about the earth, about the
sky, about other elements of this world, about the motion and rotation
or even the magnitude and distances of the stars, about definite
eclipses of the sun and moon, about the passage of years and seasons,
about the nature of animals, of fruits, of stones, and of other such
things, may be known with the greatest certainty by reasoning or by
experience, even by one who is not a Christian. It is too disgraceful
and ruinous, though, and greatly to be avoided, that he [the non-
Christian] should hear a Christian speaking so idiotically on these
matters, and as if in accord with Christian writings, that he might
say that he could scarcely keep from laughing when he saw how totally
in error they are." - The Literal Interpretation of Genesis, St.
Augustine.

Note that he in no way felt that this represented any failing in the
scriptures if their interpretation seemed to clash with science or
logic; it was a failing of those who were understanding them in an
obviously incorrect fashion.

That's of course typical of our curent fundamentalists, whatever their
particular religion; the possibility that their interpretation might
be wrong is completely unimaginable.
"The bible says there is no evolution"
"Uh, that's not what the bible says"
"You calling the bible a liar, you heathen?!"
Either they're right, or the bible is wrong; they can't conceive of
any other possibility. Of course again, that's not the private
province of fundamentalists, that's typical of idiots of all types.
And it resonates strongly with today's American "conservative base",
with its appeal to anti-intellectualism.